CICT takes Port of Colombo to the global arena

• nLargest ever ship-to-shore cranes delivered on schedule

Colombo Intern-ational Container Terminals achieved another milestone, when they took delivery of the first batch of Container Handling Cranes, which were delivered direct to the CICT berth at the new Colombo South Harbour.

These cranes have been manufactured by the world’s largest crane manufacturer ZPMC who are globally reputed having supplied most of the large European, US and Far East Ports.

Coincidentally, the berthing of the vessel carrying these cranes at the CICT is a historic moment as it was the first ship to berth alongside the new berth.

The first phase of the CICT berth construction is now complete and the terminal is gearing up to commence operations in July this year.

What is most noteworthy and commendable is that CICT has fast-tracked the total project completion time from an originally estimated time frame of 60 months to 30 months, and is well on track to meet the project completion target date of April 2014.

With the commissioning of the CICT terminal, the Port of Colombo will be claiming membership to the very limited number of global container terminals that have the capability to handle the largest vessels that are afloat currently.

More importantly, with the mobilisation of these large ship-to-shore quay gantry cranes, Port of Colombo can boast of being the only port within the region to meet the infra-structure capability to handle the latest new generation 18,000 TEU ships which are schedule to be launched during the third quarter of this year. Industry sources were very optimistic of this record achievement by CICT and the Port of Colombo, and were positive that this would be an important catalyst in making Colombo a regional maritime hub.